Max Sawicky wrote:
>
> As Samuel Johnson said, what was good was not original,
> and what was original was not good. Or something like
> that.
More like that (but still just from memory), from a book review. He said the book contained much that was new and much that was true, but that which was true was not new, and that which was new was not true.
It was partly from the good Doctor that I imbibed my deep distrust of "originality," though he wouldn't go along with the even stronger statement of the distrust in Pope (as I would).
Carrol